


kitty's got claws

by Dresupi



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awesome Darcy Lewis, BAMF Darcy Lewis, Cat!Darcy Lewis, Cats, Character Turned Into A Cat, Darcy Lewis-centric, Eventual Relationships, F/M, Internal Monologue, Magic, Magical Accidents, POV Darcy Lewis, Snark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-07-14 21:41:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16049117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: Due to some weird scientific/magical hybrid of a horrible situation, Darcy now finds herself in a decidedly... feline way.Cue her super-serumed crush busting through the doors of the lab on the way to the contamination shower.Or:Everybodydoesn'twant to be a cat.





	1. take paws

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Joey99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joey99/gifts).



> This is for pegasusdragontiger. And there are 2 more chapters coming! :D

Sighing, Darcy pushed her hair back from her face. There were too many people in the lab again. Like, literally this time, and not just in her humble opinion. Usually, she found it crowded when it was just herself and Jane, but for some reason, seemingly _everyone_ had turned out today.

Bruce and Tony were pittering around in the back, working on something that was allegedly as top secret as the lab was _supposed_ to be, given how many times they’d shooed her away when she’d gone back there for a breather. Why they were working on something so hush-hush when half the tower’s occupants were present was anyone’s guess.

Darcy herself was sweating, because apparently in order to work, Bifrosts had to be a bajillion degrees and as humid as the Florida freaking panhandle. It was like working inside an enormous mouth, and she hated it. She could have sworn she’d had to smack like twelve mosquitos, but Jane assured her that was impossible.

Bi _frost_ indeed. Bi- _unseasonably-warm_ was more like it.

Yeah, even her jokes were taking a hit. They needed to get a move on.

Loki was standing back from the four large posts she and Jane had set up on the floor in their section, having moved all the cubicle walls and most of Jane’s equipment back slightly. Thor was arguing with Jane about how the beam was too small, and one would have to be a cat or an infant to use _this_ Bifrost.

 _What is this? A Bifrost for ants?_ Darcy thought to herself and chuckled.

Or actually said aloud, if the looks the other three were giving her were any indication. Fine. Let the eggheads argue, she was going to get results.

“So send a freaking cat through the beam,” Darcy said, exhaling deeply as she leaned against the pole beside her. Priceless scientific equipment and she was laying all over it like she owned it.

That’ll show Jane to make her stay in a hot, crowded room on a Saturday!

“First off, _no_ ,” her lovely science-friend said immediately. “I’m not sending an animal through only to find out we fried the poor thing and mailed it to Abu Dhabi.

Thor looked like he was about to argue, but Darcy shook her head. “Nah, I’m not talking about an _actual_ cat. I’m talking about this dude over here. The one who looks bored and who keeps getting out of having to do literally any heavy lifting even though I’m a meager Midgardian and he’s a big powerful Asgardian.”

“Jotun,” Loki corrected her.

“What?” Darcy asked, frowning back at him.

“I’m from Jotunheim, not Asgard.”

“Dude, whatever--you’re not Midgardian. _That’s_ my point.”

“You’re saying I should go through the beam?” he asked, choosing not to argue with her, which was probably in his best interest, now that Darcy was thinking about it.

“Yes. In Garfield-form. Turn yourself into a cat and jump through. That way, the worst case scenario is, we have someone in Abu Dhabi mail you back.”

Loki looked like he was about to start arguing, but Thor piped in with his two cents. “You know, Loki… that does make sense. You’re the only one among us who can shapeshift. You should test the Bifrost and see how it works.”

“I have to correct you once again, brother-mine…” Loki drawled as he stepped forward, towards the mid-point of all the posts. “This isn’t a Bifrost, it’s merely a portal.”

“The _Bifrost_ itself was merely a portal, until Heimdall believed,” Thor said, pumping his fist in the air to punctuate.

“That’s… that’s not even remotely correct and you know it,” Loki said, shaking his head before straightening his back and wiggling his fingers. “A feline, you say?”

“Yeah, that should do it,” Darcy replied, arching an eyebrow as Loki cracked his neck and shifted down, smaller and smaller until he was just a little black cat.

The cat bounded towards the beam Jane was focusing and then the unthinkable happened.

Something came whirring towards them from the back.

“FIRE IN THE HOLE!” Tony called.

The next few events blurred together for Darcy.

In one instant, she was diving to keep the opposite post from falling down, which would have effectively trapped Loki in the inbetween. She didn’t care for the guy, but she didn’t want Thor’s brother lost in an abyss forever. That would certainly put a damper on things.

In the next instant, she was falling to the ground, expecting a splat and some pain, but then her feet moved down below her, breaking her fall as she hit the ground softly.  Painlessly.

“Hey, what gives?” she called, only to hear not her own voice, but the annoyed yowl of a cat.

Her eyes widened as she looked around, skidding on the floor as she glanced _up_ at everyone’s faces.  Now everyone was pretty much taller than her, Darcy wasn’t a stranger to being the smol friend.

But this was utterly ridiculous.

Oh, and Loki was laughing.

Of course he was.

“Shut up,” she tried to snap, but simply growled at the taller _Jotun_ man.

A quick glance down at her body answered the question for certain.

She was a cat.

A brown tabby cat. With tan paws and striped fur.

She was a cat and her clothes were on the floor sans _her_.

Oh shit.  This was not good.  Not good at all.

“Change her back!” Jane exclaimed, gesticulating wildly at Darcy.

Loki blinked in confusion for a few seconds before raising his hand out in front of him.  Greenish tendrils of energy swirled in his palm, stretching out to flick around Darcy’s whiskers and ears.  But nothing happened.

“I’m afraid it’s not something I can fix…” he finally said.  “There’s an alteration in the spell, something locking it down. I suspect as a result of your portal and whatever the dolting duo back there tossed over.” He chuckled and knelt down, his arm outstretched.  “Who knows? Perhaps she’s better like this?”

Darcy hissed and swatted Loki’s hand, which only caused him to laugh more.

Jane knelt immediately, swatting Loki’s shoulder on the way and gathering Darcy’s tiny body into her arms. “Shut your mouth, this is _your_ fault,” she hissed in his direction before tapping Thor with her elbow. “Clean up this mess, please,” she pleaded before turning back to take Cat-Darcy back to Tony and Bruce.

Darcy hadn’t ever noticed how nice Jane smelled, but she did smell nice.

Also, her heartbeat was super loud. But she just attributed that to her new-found cat hearing.

Darcy meowed softly, hiding her head in Jane’s arms as she took her back to the back of the lab.  She gently set her down on the counter and pointed at her, glaring at the owner of the lab and the only other Ph. D having person here.

“Really?” she said. “I told you we were working in here today, and you send a missle back to knock my partner into the beam and turn her into a cat?”

“We did _not_ do that,” Tony sputtered, glancing down at Darcy, who locked eyes with him to make him uncomfortable.

“You _did_ do that,” Jane argued. “Loki turned himself into a cat to test the portal--”

“Thought you said it was a Bifrost…” Tony teased.

Bruce swatted his shoulder, rolling his eyes before gesturing to Jane to go on.

“Loki turned himself into a cat, was about to run through the portal, and then your projectile knocked everything over, and turned Darcy into a cat!”

“Sounds like _Loki_ turned Darcy into a cat,” Tony said, raising his eyebrows. “Maybe ask his ethereal highness to undo his spell.”

“While it’s entirely possible that my magic was the catalyst that caused Ms. Lewis’ shift,” Loki drawled from behind them, “Unfortunately, it’s not the only thing at work, because I cannot undo it.”

Jane jutted her thumb in Loki’s direction and nodded. “Fix this.”

“You know… this sounds like an increasingly biological issue… I’m going to defer to Dr. Seven Doctorates over there, whilst I depart for literally anywhere else…” Tony said.  “Let me know if I need to buy some machine or other piece of equipment. Scratching post, maybe?” He reached out to pet Darcy’s head. “I love cats, but Darce is kind of essential.”

Bruce exhaled loudly and reached out, plucking one of Darcy’s hairs off her back.

She jolted, her claws extending momentarily. Jane reached up to absently stroke her head and back.

“Sorry,” Bruce whispered, scratching behind Darcy’s ears for a long moment before reaching for a test tube. She wasn’t going to think about how good _that_ felt. “I’m just going to test the DNA and see what we’re looking at here… I’ll try and be quick, okay?”

Darcy wasn’t sure what to say, so she didn’t do anything. Everything came out as a meow anyway.

Jane’s fingers were scratching behind her ears, which felt even _more_ amazing than when Bruce had done it because she had fingernails. But, it kind of made Darcy wonder how everyone else had seemed to adjust to her being a cat so quickly. Janey and Bruce acted like she’d always been this way, meanwhile, she was trying to figure out how bathroom and food were going to work.

The red emergency lights started flashing, a precursor to the alarm sounding.

Darcy put her head down as best she could, but the noise was still deafening.

Bruce ran off to do something about the alarm, and the doors behind them opened, revealing a very goop covered Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes.

“Oh gross, what fresh hell?” Jane muttered, her hand still stroking Darcy’s head.

The deafening alarm finally stopped and Darcy glanced up at her friend. What fresh hell indeed.


	2. purr-suasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Cat-Darcy learns a new trick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is here! Only one more chapter to go!

Jane looked around for someone--anyone-- to help with the goopy super soldiers who were now dripping said goop all over the once-clean floor of the lab.

After finding no one, Darcy heard her swear under her breath before calling over to them.

“Barnes! Decontamination room one. Rogers, come with me to room two.”

Darcy’s tiny cat belly seemed to drop as she realized what was happening. Decontamination room? People got naked in those. Oh no.  _ Oh no. _

She squirmed in Jane’s arms, but Jane held fast, opting to instead pet her head more rather than let her down to run off to cower in some corner like she really wanted.

They followed Steve’s beautiful buns of freedom into the room, Darcy struggling the entire time.

Once inside, Jane asked him the usual barrage of questions that all the lab personnel knew. Darcy had even asked the questions at one point in her career as a perpetual intern.  _ What was the substance? Where did it come from? Blah blah blah. _

Jane set Darcy down on the counter to reach into the cabinet beneath it for a sample kit. “Mind if I get some of that to run tests on?” she asked Steve, gesturing to the globs of goop dripping down his tact suit

Why Darcy had to be here for this was beyond her. Maybe Janey had finally flipped and forgotten she wasn’t actually a cat.

Jane set Darcy down on the table. Now was her chance to make a break for it. But she didn’t.

Of course she didn’t. Her crush was in the room.

“Not at all,” he said, turning to one side so Jane could scoop the goop, all the while making a disgusted face because this was definitely Bruce’s area of expertise and so he should definitely be in here.

There wasn’t really any good reason for Darcy to remain in here past the sample collection, so she hopped down from the counter, catching Jane’s eye as she moved towards the sliding doors. Jane nodded nearly imperceptibly as she took care to carefully screw the lid onto the container, looking very much like Venkman in Ghostbusters with the ghost snot.  Basically, like she didn’t want to be doing what she was doing.

She got the cap screwed on and Darcy was ready to bolt from the room before she ended up getting locked in, but then something  _ really _ weird happened.

And that was saying a  _ lot _ because Darcy was a futzing  _ cat _ right now, okay?

“So, uh.. Is Darcy in the lab today?” Steve asked.

Cat-Darcy froze in mid step, one of her paws in the air.

“Darcy?” asked Jane, sounding as surprised as Darcy felt. Which was pretty much the human version of:  _!? _

“Ms. Lewis, rather…” Steve corrected himself like that was the problem. Like he hadn’t addressed Darcy in the proper fashion and  _ that _ was why Jane was upset.

“Oh  _ that _ Darcy,” said Jane, nodding her head and still inspecting the goop filled container like it was super interesting and not a giant booger.  “Yeah, well, she’s not actually in today. Busy with other… non-lab things. Her cat. Actually. Had to take her cat to the vet and you know how that is, right?  Pet ownership.” Jane smiled awkwardly, all closed-lipped and weird.

Darcy would have rolled her eyes, but she was still kind of hung up on Steve asking about her.

“Oh her cat, huh? That’s… that’s too bad, I hope they’re okay.”

He actually looked disappointed. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part. He was probably just feigning worry for her imaginary cat. Or like… he could possibly be actually worried. It was well within Steve’s repertoire to be actual-facts worried about a cat.

Darcy snuck over away from the door, hoping to hear a little bit more from Steve, but at that precise moment, Jane was backing out of the room, through the sliding doors.

“You know what you’re doing in there, right?” Jane asked.

“Absolutely, Dr. Foster.” Steve said. “Bag the clothes and wash the body.”

“Correct. I’ll see you in fifteen,” she said as she left.

Darcy started to run out after her and then froze again when the doors slammed shut behind Jane.

_ Oh holy shit… _ She thought to herself.  _ I’m in here. _

She certainly was  _ in _ there. The decontamination room wasn’t supposed to lock with two people inside. But she wasn’t technically a  _ people _ right now, was she?

Nope.  She was a cat. Not a people.

Apparently cats didn’t count to Friday. Darcy would have to register a complaint to Tony. Cats are people too. 

Because it was for reasons like this that things like  _ the Fly _ happened.

Steve still hadn’t noticed her. She contemplated hissing or meowing or some other such cat nonsense, but it seemed like her kitty vocal chords wouldn’t comply with the transmissions from her kitty brain.

Great. So not only was she stuck as a cat, but she was stuck as a socially awkward one to boot.

Steve was unzipping from his tact suit and this was completely not kosher in the slightest. Like, this was decidedly, all-caps NOT OKAY and Darcy knew that, so she thought fast and ran over to a corner, hiding her head under her paws and staring at the wall for good measure.

She was NOT going to gawk at a barely dressed Steve while he didn’t know she was here. Hell, he didn’t even know  _ a cat _ was here, let alone another human. Let alone Darcy.

She remained like that, hiding beneath her paws as a piece of Steve’s uniform hit her back.

_ Really? What are you doing, Steve? Just tossing your clothes around like you’re Kim Basinger in Nine and a Half Weeks?  _

Darcy paused for a beat, before realized she’d need to move from her hiding place.

_ Shit. He’s going to come over here and pick this up and see me. And he’ll probably yell.  Because who ever expects to see a cat under their clothes that they just threw across the room like a complete barbarian? _

Darcy slithered out from under the article of clothing, taking time to squeezing beneath one of the counters instead of the corner, but hiding her face nonetheless. The soft sound of Steve’s bare feet hit her ears--as well as the gentle thrum of his heartbeat--while he traversed the room, grabbing pieces of his uniform and stuffing it into the bags provided.

He dropped all of them into the bin at the opposite end of the room and padded back to the shower.

The hiss of water from the showerhead started her internal countdown. She had fifteen minutes to keep hiding her face before he stepped out and wrapped up in one of those paper gowns in the drawers.

Darcy kept the time in her head while staring at the tiled floor.

 

* * *

 

Like clockwork, the water shut off after fifteen minutes, and Steve stepped, dripping, out of the shower and over to the big blow dryer thing beside the shower.

Darcy was counting the specks in the tile when that monstrosity turned on.  She jumped and bonked her head on the underside of the counter she was hiding under. It smarted, but she didn’t see anything, so she figured that was a win.

She wondered how silly she looked, a teeny kitty cat hiding her eyes under her paws and cowering beneath one of the stainless steel counters.

Steve stepped out of the dryer and padded over to the exact counter she was hiding beneath.  Of course he did. Of freaking course.

Darcy held her breath as Steve fished around for a paper gown, likely having to find one in size ‘hunk’ before shutting the cabinet and donning the enormous paper towel gown.

Brawny’s fall collection.

Couture by Bounty.

Darcy used this opportunity to slink over closer to the door, using the counters as camouflage as she scooted ever closer to freedom.

When the doors whooshed open, she jetted out to the opposite end of the lab, finding Jane on her hands and knees, clucking her tongue while she peered under a desk.

“You are aware that I’m not an actual cat, right?” Darcy asked, freezing the second the words came from her lips.

_ WHat the-- _

“Yeah, I know, but I figured it couldn’t  _ hurtohmygodyoucantalk _ ?”

Darcy gulped a little. As much as she could as a kitty cat. “Apparently?”

 


	3. kitten around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3! It's technically done, but I wanted to do a short little fluff chapter (no pun intended) of Darcy/Steve cuteness to close it out! <3

Jane’s wide-eyed gaze was enough to make Darcy freeze for a moment. 

_ Could she talk? Apparently, she could? Words had happened. Non-cat words. Human words. _

Okay, so maybe she needed a basic rundown of the events so far: Got turned into a cat by an unknown mixture of science and magic, then got locked in decom room with a very naked Steve Rogers, was a cat but she could suddenly talk…

It felt like there was a missing step in there somewhere…

“What’s that on your back?” Jane asked, squinting down at Darcy, looking closely at something decided behind her head.

Maybe  _ that _ was the missing step showing its face right now. Or it's back. As it were.

“Uh… I dunno?” Darcy asked, still standing stock still.  “My back, maybe?”

“Can you just...  _ hold still  _ for a sec so I can scoop it off?” Jane asked, popping on a pair of gloves and reaching down to scoop whatever was riding shotgun on Darcy’s feline back off and into a sterile container.

Darcy nodded, her mind racing as she stayed perfectly still and tried to figure out exactly what Jane was seeing.

“What is this?” her friend asked, peering at the goop. “Where did it come from?”

“I was locked in the decom room with Steve,” Darcy said slowly, shooting Jane a contrary look at the end of her statement to hold off whatever salacious conversation was to follow. “Don’t start. I didn’t see anything.  Didn’t even look. I hid under a piece of his uniform--” she trailed off, straightening up to a seated position when it dawned on her. “His uniform! It’s probably some of whatever was on Steve’s uniform!”

Jane, completely dropping her previous thought and scooping up another just as quickly, made a face at the goop in the container. “Are you sure it’s from Steve, though?”

“Wow. No ‘sorry for locking you in a decom shower with your crush’, just straight on to analysis, huh?”

Her friend rolled her eyes. “If you knew I was going to say it, what difference does it make?”

“None really, I guess. But yeah. I’m pretty sure it came from Steve’s uniform,” Darcy replied. “Why do you ask?”

‘It’s a different color now.  Different consistency.” Jane held out the container to show her. It now looked less like a booger and more like bright purple hair gel. “You’re sure you got it from Steve? Because his goop was more green than purple.”

“Yeah, there’s pretty much nowhere else I could have gotten it.  Do I need a decom shower now?” Darcy asked.

“I dunno. Follow me. We’re going to find Bruce,” Jane said, turning and walking towards another part of the lab.

Darcy jumped down from the counter, padding quickly after Jane.  If there was one thing she was going to miss when she changed back into a human, it was the speediness that came from her cat-reflexes.

 

* * *

One decontamination shower later, Darcy was very damp and very cold, and very much missing her coffee.

She wasn’t a human now. She was a cat. And cats couldn’t have coffee.

Besides, priority numero uno was to  _ not _ let Steve know the cat that was flitting around the lab was actually her. It was embarrassing enough with Bruce and Tony and Thor knowing who she was, without Steve knowing as well.

As luck would have it, he’d only have to wait around until Bruce got done testing the goop that came off his tactical suit. Unfortunately, some of that goop was also what made her talk, so it complicated matters like Steve’s time spent in the lab.

Maybe she would tell him about this one day, but not while she had whiskers and a sandpapery tongue. Because if she knew Steve like she thought she did, he’d flip out if he so much as  _ thought _ he’d put her in some kind of a compromising situation. Never mind that she was putting him in one as well.

So she had convinced herself to put off the coffee craze until she was decidedly less furry. And she probably would have stayed curled up on a fluffy towel in Jane’s computer chair if it hadn’t been for the tantalizing scent of coffee floating through the lab.

It made her wonder if she could have just a tiny taste. Just the littlest one. Lady in  _ Lady and the Tramp _ had eaten a coffee-soaked donut. If it was okay for a cartoon cocker spaniel, maybe it was okay for a feline Darcy Lewis.

Plus Steve-o was nowhere to be seen. Probably hunkered down with a bag of potato chips and waiting out his quarantine with Bucky and his Netflix watchlist.

Cat-Darcy padded softly through the lab, careful to keep an eye out for Steve. It was difficult because she could hear/sense everyone’s heartbeats and it was hard for her to keep all of them apart.

But from what she could tell, there was only one person in the kitchen. And that person was Tony. And Tony had coffee.

And Tony owed her. So… it was a no-brainer, really.

She pranced into the kitchen and sat down by the door, letting out a small groan before moving closer to the counter and hopping up on the end. Jumps were much easier too. Add that to her ‘I’ll miss ya, but I wouldn’t kiss ya’ list about cat abilities.

The scent in the air was downright heavenly. A bold, thick aroma that was equal parts earthy and sweet. She inhaled deeply once she’d landed on the end of the counter.

Tony was pouring a steaming cup before replacing the carafe on the warmer.

He snickered in her general direction.

“You want some?” he asked, holding out the cup in what was likely some kind of a joke.

A joke that she was going to see to its natural end, of course.

She rolled her feline eyes. “Puh-lease, Stark. You should know better than to come between me and my coffee.”

“Can cats even drink coffee, Lewis?” Tony asked. “Because I think it’s maybe kind of bad for them…” He punctuated by taking a long sip from the cup in his hand and humming. “It’s  _ so _ good, though.”

She grumbled under her breath. “You know what? I kind of don’t care. Pour some in a saucer for me.”

Darcy had no sooner spoken the last words than a second heartbeat approached from behind her. It was steady. Slow. Super healthy.

Emphasis on the ‘super’.

_ Oh, good grief… please no… _

She didn’t think she’d ever prayed  _ not _ to see Steve ever in her life. But her prayers were definitely of the negative-Steve variety as she turned around, spotting him frozen in the doorway.

His heartbeat sped up as he took in the scene before him. Steve wasn’t an idiot. And trying to convince him that she was some kind of a hallucination brought on by the green goop was worse than explaining what had really happened.

The jig was up.

Or whatever the cat version of a jig was.

Steve’s mouth opened a few times, but no sound ever came out. His brow was knit, his blue eyes full of confusion.

Darcy sighed heavily and turned around completely, aware that Tony was slowly inching his way out of the room. The Coward.

“Okay, so I’m a cat… obviously…” she said, looking down at her paws. “I didn’t want… I didn’t want you to find out because it’s like… totally embarrassing and--”

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re the cat who was with Dr. Foster earlier…” He pressed both lips together before continuing. “So you know I was asking about you…”

“I do… and like… I don’t… I didn’t want you to think I was going to hoard the information or use it against you or anything…” she began to babble. “I know it doesn’t look good, especially when you factor in how I was trapped in that decontamination shower with you, but I  _ promise _ I didn’t see anything, I didn’t see…” she trailed off for a moment.

Steve’s mouth had fallen open again, his eyes comically wide. Or it would have been comical if Darcy was able to find anything funny right now.

“You didn’t know I was in the decom shower…” she said slowly. “That’s right. You didn’t see me because--”

“Because you hid,” he said. “When you could have just said something.”

“No!” she said quickly. “No, Steve. I couldn’t talk until after the shower.”

“So the sight of me naked restored your power of speech?” he asked in disbelief.

“NO!” she said quickly. “Not that I don’t think it has the potential, but I didn’t see you naked. Not at all. I just covered my eyes and hid in the corner. You’re the one who threw your clothes on top of me. I got doused with the goop and the goop turned purple and now I can talk. And Bruce is running tests on it to find out why. And that’s like… all of everything.  Everything I know.”

Steve was quiet for a long moment.  So long that Darcy thought he might just turn around and leave. Go find some far corner of the lab and wait out his quarantine alone or with Bucky. Just as far away from her as possible.

“So you really didn’t see anything?” he asked, tugging down on the top part of his scrubs.

She shook her head. “Nah. I figured you wouldn’t want me to without your permission and I kind of--” She stopped talking abruptly. “You know.”

He smiled a little, shifting his weight. “Well, I mean… sorry for jumping to a magnificently wrong conclusion… and for putting in you in that awkward position…”

She laughed a little. She would have blushed, but luckily, she was covered in fur so it didn’t show.

“I’m sorry too. And you didn’t. It was just an all-around bad place to be.”

“Well, I mean… you’re the one who’s a cat. That’s gotta… I mean that’s not the best, is it?”

“Not really, no,” she replied. “I have fur, I’m tiny… I can hear everyone’s heartbeats… my back itches and I don’t know how to scratch it…” she sighed heavily. “Hopefully Bruce can find the antidote soon.”

Steve huffed out a sound that was probably supposed to be a laugh, but it sounded more like a nervous tick than anything. “I could… I mean… if you don’t mind, I could help you with that. The itch, that is. I don’t have any power over Bruce’s research.”

Darcy froze, blushing even more, and forever thankful that he couldn’t see. “I mean.. If you want… if it’s not too weird…”

“It’s not  _ that _ weird,” Steve said.  He moved closer, close enough to touch her.  His hand came out tentatively, moving over her hand and down her back.  He stopped shy of her tail though. Darcy couldn’t help but arch into his hand. Damn cat reflexes. That’s all it was. Reflexes.

He kept repeating the action, scratching his fingers along her spine and Darcy suddenly got why cats loved this so much. After this, she was getting a cat and she was going to give them back scritches all the time.

It was so wonderful that neither of them really saw Bruce as he entered the room.

The doctor coughed, which definitely got their attention. Steve stepped way back and Darcy sat at attention, hoping it hadn’t looked like more than it was.

“I uh…” Bruce said with a cough. “I found an antidote if you’re interested.”

“Hells yes, I’m interested. Dose me up, Doc!” Darcy leaped from the counter and followed Bruce out of the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave me some kitty treats! (in the form of comments!)


	4. a claw-some epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy! Here's the last little mini epilogue for this story! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it! <3 
> 
> Much love to everyone who's been commenting on my fics and/or sending me little messages on tumblr! You're amazing! <3

Darcy didn’t really notice any lasting effects from the couple of hours she’d spent as a cat. And it was a good thing too! She was pretty sure what Steve was after was one hundred percent woman.

She wasn’t really worried about it all that much, though.  Because Steve had pretty much called her and/or seen her daily in the three weeks since Kitty Lab: the Cattening. He certainly didn’t seem to be averse to her many quirks. Quite the contrary, in fact.

He liked quiet evenings at home, go figure. Darcy was a definite homebody, so she was more than happy to oblige him.

When he came over that particular afternoon, having just purchased a new digital movie, she didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t his premier visit to her humble abode, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. He’d seen all her apartment had to offer and he kept coming back, so obviously, there was something (or someone) he liked here.

“You want cheese on the popcorn?” Darcy asked after letting him in. She’d taken the opportunity to slide out to the kitchen in her fluffy socks in search of either Jiffy Pop or something white from her Reddenbacher collection while he was hanging up his coat on the hook by the door.

Steve took a seat at her counter and shrugged. “Only if you do.”

“Well, I only want it if you want it,” she countered.

“The only thing I want is you and me squeezed into close confines of your throw blanket to watch ‘When Harry Met Sally’ because my girlfriend can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet.”

“Well, you’ve been thawed out for like… what… seven-ish years now? That’s plenty of time to have seen a simple rom-com,” Darcy scoffed. “In your girlfriend’s defense.”

“You’re not going to comment on me calling you ‘my girlfriend’?” Steve teased, moving around the counter and reaching for her hand. Popcorn be damned, He was a much better snack.

Darcy went very willingly into his arms, her skin tingling when he nuzzled her nose.

“Oh, was that  _ me _ you were speaking of?” she asked, bearing absolutely none of the nonchalance her words promised. She was altogether too happy to be Steve’s girlfriend, and her tone gave it away.

Steve smirked and kissed her. 

It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed like this. He’d kissed her after their first official date in line at the movies, and waiting for the valet to bring around their car at one of Tony’s fundraisers. But this  _ was _ the first time it had gone on for this long. And it was the first time they were truly and utterly alone when things started to heat up.  Behind closed doors and having no prior engagements to attend to.

Darcy made a small sound in the back of her throat, one that she’d deny until her dying day was a purr. But it totally was.

Steve’s eyebrows rose a little, something Darcy saw before he pressed his forehead to hers.

“What was that?” he murmured.

“What was what?” she squeaked, taking the opportunity to play with the hair on the back of his head, scraping her nails over his scalp. The action earned her a muted sigh as he leaned back into her touch.

“You know exactly what,” he said softly. “But I won’t make you say if you keep doing that.”

“If I make  _ you _ purr, is that what you’re saying?”

He grinned.  “So you admit it was a purr?”

She rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips softly to his. “So what if it was?”

“I dunno…” he replied. “Just might have to take you back to your bedroom and see if I can get you to purr some more…”

Okay, so maybe there was  _ something  _ residual that lingered after she changed back from her feline purrsuasion. Pun absolutely intended. 

And judging by Steve’s reaction to the sound, maybe what he was after wasn’t one hundred percent woman, but one hundred percent Darcy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave me some sugar if you liked it! <3


End file.
